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Tracking Attacks from Congress on Public Health, Clean Water, and Action on Climate Change

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Big polluters have stacked Congress and the Trump Administration with their friends, and they have already started handing out favors. The polluter friendly agenda calls for rolling back our most vital protections for our water, air, climate and health.

You can help - send a message to your elected officials today and tell them to protect clean water, not polluter profits.

We will be tracking attacks on our water and environment here, and keeping you up to date on how your Representatives in the House and Senators vote on our priority bills. Check back regularly for updates. See how each Senator and Representative voted.

Tax Scam and Arctic Oil Drilling

The tax scam bill provided massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations by selling out the environment and public health. The tax bill will raise taxes on most Americans in the long-term, while cutting taxes for big polluters and extending dirty energy tax preferences. It will likely lead to cuts of important programs that protect our environment, health, and well-being. The bill also opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, which would cause irreversible damage to the home of the Gwich’in people and pristine wildlife habitat.

The final conference report for H.R. 1, passed the Senate on December 19, 2017 with a 51-48 vote, and passed the House on December 20, 2017 with a 224-201 vote. It was signed into law on December 22, 2017.

Dirty Budget Votes

President Trump and Republicans in Congress are pushing a federal budget with deep cuts to critical environmental programs, and ideological policy riders that would gut clean water and other health and safety protections. We are pushing back against dangerous appropriations and budget votes in the House and Senate.

House Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill

The House spending bill is a budget and policy rider disaster. It includes cuts to vital programs that protect our water and air, including more than $500 million in cuts to EPA, $250 million of which are cuts to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The bill also includes reckless policy riders, including one that exempts the Trump Administration from following the rule of law to roll back Clean Water Act protections.

Amendment No. 37 – Beyer (D-VA), Esty (D-CT)

Would remove authority for the Trump Administration to withdraw the Clean Water Rule without following established procedures under the Administrative Procedures Act, directly undercutting the rule of law and established process for rulemaking.

Prohibits EPA from using any funds to implement “backstop” actions against any of the six states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in the event that a state does not meet the goals mandated by the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay clean up plan.

Amendment No. 57 – Carbajal (D-CA)

Prohibits funds from being used to process any application for offshore oil drilling, to drill or a permit to modify, that would authorize use of hydraulic fracturing or acid well stimulation treatment in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf.

Amendment No. 75 – Polis (D-CO)

Dirty Water Bills

Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act (aka the “Poison Our Waters Act”)

The “Poison Our Waters Act” would gut Clean Water Act protections from pesticide use. The bill would allow for pesticides to be sprayed directly into rivers, lakes, wetlands or streams without a permit, putting communities that swim, fish, drink and do business at risk of being poisoned.

Exempting Water Projects from Environmental Review

The Water Supply Permitting Act would undermine public input and environmental review for water projects, like dams and surface storage. This bill would undercut our bedrock environmental laws, like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), by establishing strict deadlines for environmental impact studies, limiting public input, and allowing private companies to pay for expedited permit reviews.

Climate and Energy Votes

Fast-tracking Gas Pipelines

The “Promoting Interagency Coordination for Review of Natural Gas Pipelines Act” would subvert state and local government agencies, undercut public transparency and limit environmental review in the permitting of new gas pipelines. It would give ultimate authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an agency with a poor record of environmental protection, to issue pipeline permits with minimal environmental protections and public participation.

Perry Amendment to the NDAA (Military Preparedness and Climate Change)

This amendment to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would have blocked a study on the impacts of climate change on the military. It would have also removed language that recognizes climate change as a direct threat to national security.

Anti-Regulatory Bills

REINS Act (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2017)

This bill would significantly limit the ability of federal agencies to pass regulations that protect the environment and health. It would require Congressional approval for any new rules, severely limiting the ability of agencies like EPA to do their job.

Midnight Rules Relief Act

This bill allows Congress to pass multiple Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions at once, thereby throwing out dozens of important environmental, health and other protections simultaneously without debate.

Regulatory Accountability Act

The Regulatory Accountability Act would cripple the process for issuing and enforcing rules to ensure we have clean air and water, safe food and consumer products, fair wages and safe workplaces and many other key protections. The bill would add dozens of burdensome new requirements to the Administrative Procedure Act — increasing the demands on agencies that are already struggling to operate under tight budgets.

Regulatory Integrity Act

The Regulatory Integrity Act prohibits federal agencies from communicating with the public about proposed regulations. This bill would stifle participation in the regulatory process and give more power to special interests like corporate polluters to influence regulations. This bill is bad for democracy as well as the environment and public health.

Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act

The SCRUB Act establishes a commission to identify rules and regulations to be repealed. The commission would only consider costs, not benefits of regulations, rendering its decisions useless and not in the public interest. Additionally, the bill would require agencies adopting new regulations to cut an existing rule with equal or greater cost.

Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act

The HONEST Act would restrict EPA from using scientific research that is not publicly available. This would handcuff EPA and limit the agency’s ability to enact protections. This anti-science bill is a direct attack on EPA and its mission of protecting the environment. Read our letter opposing the HONEST Act.

EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act

This bill would hinder the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board (EPA SAB) to reach timely, independent, objective, credible conclusions that can form the basis of policy. The bill would make it easier for corporate interests like fossil fuel companies, to influence the scientific review process at the agency. Read our letter opposing this bill.

The CRA allows Congress by majority vote in both chambers with limited debate and no possibility of a filibuster, to override recently issued rules so long as the president does not veto the congressional actions. The result: Americans have lost a number of health, safety, pocketbook and environmental protections. Compounding the problem, the CRA blocks agencies from issuing “substantially similar” rules – ever – without express authorization from Congress.

The Stream Protection Rule, finalized by the U.S. Department of the Interior in Dec. 2016, provides communities with basic information they desperately need about toxic water pollution caused by nearby coal mining operations.

Overturning the Oil, Gas and Mining Anti Corruption Rule

The oil anti-corruption rule requires U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies to publicly report project-level payments made to governments for natural resources in every country of operation. This transparency is key to preventing corruption. Read our letter to Congress opposing overturning this rule.

The pro environment vote is NO.

H. R. 71 passed in the House on February 1, 2017, with a vote of 231-191 and passed the Senate 52-47 on February 3, 2017.

Signed by President Trump on February 14, 2017.

Overturning the Rule on Methane Waste from Oil and Gas On Public Lands

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s methane and natural gas rule is a commonsense policy that requires the oil and gas industry to reduce venting, flaring and leaks at industry operations on public and tribal lands by deploying methane mitigation technology. Repealing this rule would harm public health and the climate and reduce revenue to the federal government and Western states. Read our letter to Congress opposing overturning this rule.

Overturning Protections for Alaska’s Wildlife

The US Fish and Wildlife service issued protections for bears, wolves and other carnivores on Alaska’s federal wildlife refuges. Alaska adopted an extreme program that allows for “predator control” methods that include killing mother bears and cubs, killing wolves and pups in their dens, and trapping, baiting, and using airplanes to scout and shoot bears. The Alaska Wildlife Refuge Rule blocked this program on federal lands. This CRA resolution clears the way for these extreme hunting practices.Read our letter to the Senate opposing overturning this rule.

The pro environment vote is NO.

H.J. Res. 69 passed the House on February 16, 2017 with a 225-193 vote. It passed the Senate on March 21, 2017 with a 52-47 vote.